Backstage Buzz: Maori Ink at Rodarte

There are few young designers as committed to realizing their creative vision as Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte. So when the sisters decided to reference the sacred body art of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people on their spring runway, they undertook the task with all the rigorousness one might expect. It took more than 30 days—and 40 original sketches by M.A.C. body-painting specialist Chantel Miller—to come up with the tribal “tattoos” inked onto arms like sleeves and onto necks like chokers backstage at their Tuesday afternoon show. Arriving up to four hours before curtain time, models like Iris Strubegger (left) and Freja Beha Erichsen sat patiently while Miller and her team painted on the customized geometric designs using a pitch-black silicone-based pigment. In the interest of pre-show secrecy, models were cloaked in black sheets from head to toe when passing photographers between the hair-and-makeup tent and makeshift dressing area erected outside the Gagosian Gallery. “The idea was to create something dark, beautiful, and a little bit scary,” said key makeup artist James Kaliardos, who went to work on the faces, creating gothic ombré lips that faded from black to scarlet in the center. Such an extreme take on beauty can be rare during New York Fashion Week, where approachability is often the name of the game. But then it’s the Mulleavys’ ability to build a fully realized fantasy world around their clothing that has lured a fierce following of editors and It-girls (note Kirsten Dunst and Miranda July in the front row) to their own fashion tribe.